


Lavender

by aderyn



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Addiction, Bees, Drug Use, Drugs, Flowers, John is a Very Good Doctor, Memories, Past Drug Addiction, Sherlock Holmes and Bees, Sherlock's Past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-24 19:37:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/943864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What?” John says, “drunk bees, did they say?”</p>
<p>“They’re not dead,”Sherlock says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lavender

**Author's Note:**

> For [khorazir](http://archiveofourown.org/users/khorazir/pseuds/khorazir), with thanks for the bee story and all the beautiful art.
> 
> Thank you [PFG](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lizeckhart/works), for insight and layers, and [Jude](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wiggleofjudas/works), for tea!

_Lavendula angustifolia_ , BBC1 says, the telly bluelight over Sherlock, a stalk himself on the sofa, fingers twists in his open shirt.

“What?” John says, “drunk bees, did they say?”

“They’re not dead,” Sherlock says.

“Clearly.”

Bees onscreen in loops and swoons above the violet rows, an excess this year, they’re saying, the warm summer on the fields, a bumper crop, tumbling them stunned to the ground.

*****

_Whorls, flowers in whorls, spike bract apex calyx corolla._

_Lobes and clefts, the pinnate leaf._

_Stoechas, lenata, dentate._

_Smoke, blush, mist, amethyst, indigo, colour and plant._

_From lavandre, lavare, to wash clean, or livere, blue-tinged._

_Livid, he might have been, gone on the needle, the coca, the poppy, two acetyl groups to the morphine, blue-lipped on Montague._

“Sherlock?”

“Not dead,” the organic farmer on TV says, “just a bit overcome.”

“Been there,” Sherlock says, shrugs, “the bees.”

“Been…?”

_Oh._

The last junkie they found, not so long ago, still warm, the last craving, not so long gone.

“Planted Folgate again,” the farmer says, grins, “they love it.”  

Sherlock swallows, sweet and thick as the scent of shaving.

*****

_Oh._

John sits. Lets fields dissolve, the story open to another. Thinks:

_Antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic; tea, honey, sugar, soap, sleep._

Sits, slips fingers into the bend of Sherlock’s elbow, tracks the roots of veins there, fragile and blue.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Gorgeous art by khorazir](http://khorazir.tumblr.com/post/59904232992/inspired-by-lavender-by-aderyn-i-mentioned-a-bbc#note-container)
> 
>  
> 
> [Lovely cover by quarryquest](https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/48F9Oty2eqTE2j13KEIjR9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink)
> 
>  
> 
> [Mayfield Lavender](http://www.mayfieldlavender.com/)   
> [Fields of lavender](http://thewellnessdoer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/lavender.jpg?2c8187)   
> [Snowhill lavender farm](http://thaoski.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/snowhill-lavender-farm-london.jpg)   
> [More fields of lavender](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/photography/photos/life-color-purple/purple-fields-ludwig/)   
> [Drunk bees on flowers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt3XG-nH9jA)   
> [Things lavender is good for](http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/lavender)


End file.
